[vdr] VDR control via email command or SMS

Has anyone done any automation of tasks by monitoring /var/spool/mail/ mailboxes?

As I have VDR shutting down between timers, I'd like to 'queue' an email request to automate a response containing all the current scheduled timers, and to add additional timers where requested.

Idea would be to SMS a 'command' to an email gateway, which the VDR box (when it next turned on) could respond to and issue svdrp commands where needed.

Does anyone know of any tools available to monitor and parse emails? Perhaps something the sourceforge, or even the this mail list uses to list subscribed lists etc???

Any thoughts?